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Kid is teaching me Titanfall 2. Running on walls is both cool and tricky.

Yeah Titanfall 2 was cool. Got a kick out of running on walls, but your right, it's tricky. All about timing and jumping and double-jumping at the right time. And hitting the wall at the right angle. The time-travelling is even cooler.

The thing to understand about loot boxes and F2P is that the vast, vast majority of players never buy anything. There is a tiny minority, “whales”, that buy a lot and make this worth it. I am not at all convinced that there is the same number of whales in a skill-based, competitive game as there is in a mobile time waster. We will see.

I also wonder what Disney thinks about all this. They’re clearly devaluing the Star Wars license with their shenanigans.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

Watching EA squirm is like watching a train wreck. It seems pretty clear that they had a plan from early on to cut the price of the top heroes by a lot to "make the outrage outdated", as the phrase goes, and when that didn't really work, they don't have any other moves. The pay-to-win is so poorly implemented, simply percentage boosts to different stats, that there is no defense for it, and the time limit on arcade mode makes it so obvious that they want to give people who buy loot boxes a big advantage.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

I haven’t played any of those games in a long time, but as I understand it, the basic idea is that the star cards can give bonuses to basic stats like weapon cooldown, weapons damage, health recharge delay, etc, in addition to unlocking powerful weapons, heroes and tanks. You can gain those cards by just racking up hours in the game, but you have to play online against others, as the arcade (offline) mode is limited in how long you can play it, a la Candy Crush.

The gambling aspect comes in in that you don’t know what you get in a loot box. You can get cards for a class you don’t even play as, and there is no way to trade them.

In all, the game forces you to play online and probably lose to people who have bought better equipment, heroes and bonuses, or buy those things yourself with real money.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

Scuttlebutt is that they get re-enabled after Christmas. EA's thinking is that they will let the FSP pros play now, wait until all the kids and general amateurs get the game at Christmas, watch them fail spectacularly against people who have played for a month and are better at the genre in the first place, and let them correct that by buying loot crates to catch up.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

Am I the only one annoyed that the Xbox One (X) requires internet and a MS account to do literally anything?

I get that the original One needed a day-1 patch to work but see no reason the One X (and PS4 Pro, I assume?) require internet to even allow you to set the things up, let alone an MS account for every single person who uses it.

Mario Odyssey is the most fun I've had with a Mario title since Mario 64. It's neck and neck with Breath of the Wild for Game of the Year in my estimation. I just reached the last world last night — I can't tell you how many times I've found myself grinning like a moron.

According to an unnamed "person familiar with the matter" who spoke to the Journal, Disney executives were "upset at how online outrage over the costs of gaining access to popular characters such as Luke Skywalker reflected on their marquee property." While Iger was concerned about this perception, it was Disney Head of Consumer Products and Interactive Media Jimmy Pitaro who sent EA a message expressing those concerns, according to the report.

The Belgian lottery commission (government organ that regulates gambling) thinks that loot boxes are gambling but that they can't ban them under current laws. They will however work to ban them on an EU level. This will be interesting to watch.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

Originally prototyped as a multiplayer version of Fallout 4 with the goal of envisioning what an online Fallout game might look like, Fallout 76 has evolved quite a bit over the past few years, those sources said. It will have quests and a story, like any other game from Bethesda Game Studios, a developer known for meaty RPGs like Skyrim. It will also feature base-building—just like 2015's Fallout 4—and other survival-based and multiplayer mechanics, according to those sources. One source cautioned that the gameplay is rapidly changing, like it does in many online “service” games, but that’s the core outline.

Is this the end of turn-based-combat?

After Fallout 4 petered out for me I haven't much thought about the franchise until the reveal trailer for Vault 76 dropped yesterday. I've heard 76 compared to Ark or Rust, which is interesting since they were never really full games in any sense of the word. To me this sounds like a mashup of Destiny/PUBG/Fortnite with a Fallout skin.

In other news I've been playing Fortnite (2 solo wins woooo) and it's a pretty good time. The missus is really into watching it for some reason and actually requests watching me play over TV shows/etc., not a bad gig if you can get it. The main reason I'm playing fortnite is A) its free and B) match load times are bananas, this game can find 100 people in about 30 seconds flat, it's pretty impressive.

There is a game called Frostpunk that just dropped. It is essentially a base builder after an apocalypse, where you try to expand your base to save as many people as you can, while not running out of food or fuel and being able to defend yourself. Scouting missions bring rare loot, which you can use to build higher tier buildings, there is a tech tree, etc.

As a coincidence, I was listening to a review of this game just before the news of Fallout 76 dropped. If Fallout 76 is that, but with better graphics and polish, I am so in. If it is an online base builder.. eh.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

After Fallout 4 petered out for me I haven't much thought about the franchise until the reveal trailer for Vault 76 dropped yesterday. I've heard 76 compared to Ark or Rust, which is interesting since they were never really full games in any sense of the word. To me this sounds like a mashup of Destiny/PUBG/Fortnite with a Fallout skin.

I'm terrified they're going to screw up the things I liked, but I'm old now and my crankiness is intensifying.

In other news I've been playing Fortnite (2 solo wins woooo) and it's a pretty good time. The missus is really into watching it for some reason and actually requests watching me play over TV shows/etc., not a bad gig if you can get it. The main reason I'm playing fortnite is A) its free and B) match load times are bananas, this game can find 100 people in about 30 seconds flat, it's pretty impressive.

I've been playing on PC for a while, but I'm probably going to switch over to PS4. The PC players with their mice are impossible to compete with.

Again, probably because I'm old. I just can't figure out how they're building so quickly. I see a guy, and he's already built himself up 15 stories and snipes me.

There is a game called Frostpunk that just dropped. It is essentially a base builder after an apocalypse, where you try to expand your base to save as many people as you can, while not running out of food or fuel and being able to defend yourself. Scouting missions bring rare loot, which you can use to build higher tier buildings, there is a tech tree, etc.

As a coincidence, I was listening to a review of this game just before the news of Fallout 76 dropped. If Fallout 76 is that, but with better graphics and polish, I am so in. If it is an online base builder.. eh.

I hadn't read anything on it. Thank you for pointing it out. Sounds interesting.

Yes to both honestly. With the praise Witcher 3 has gotten and my lust for any game with dystopian sci-fi elements, I'm all over Cyberpunk. Metro is an easy one, ex-STALKER devs making post-apocalyptic linear FPS with suffocating immersion is my drug. Looks 4A is heading into a more open-world concept this time and I really hope they didn't try and 'Far Cry' the game up. With so many games either favoring online play in some form or downright requiring it, Metro (along with Alien: Isolation) have been bastions of linear story-based experiences in the crowded FPS market.

"Set in the hills of West Virginia," he said, "You are one of the first to emerge into a very different and untamed wasteland." And indeed -- it is different. Howard says the world is huge, diverse, and features six distinct regions to explore, each pulling from real culture, locations and even legends from the area.

So like Destiny?

Speaking at Bethesda's E3 2018 showcase, game director Todd Howard announced that Fallout 76 is "entirely online, but that isn't to say its a massively multiplayer game though -- it's more like a more like a "shared world" shooter, similar to games like Destiny

Okay thats a bit on the nose.

Despite appearing in every iteration of the franchise since the original, it's not clear if V.A.T.S. will be in Fallout 76.The game's E3 trailer didn't show a single moment of the tactical targeting system, and it's hard to imagine how you could freeze combat in a multiplayer game without annoying the other players. It's possible the game could have a modified version of V.A.T.S, like the slowdown mechanic introduced in the VR version of Fallout 4, but it's unclear at this time.

"Mom I can't pause the game it's online!" Called it.

Fallout 76 is definitely an online survival game, but Bethesda describes it as a "softcore" survival game. Death doesn't mean loss of progression or of end of your character like it does in other online survival games. This means you can play, take risks and fail without fear of feeling like you've lost hours of gameplay for one mistake.

So a 'lite' griefing then?

I'll def play the beta before I'm going to many sense of this news. Destiny might be a profitable and mechanically sound game but find it soulless and repetitive.

Has anyone tried the recent BattleTech game? Mechwarrior meets XCOM, took me completely by surprise by actually being quite good. It even runs well on a recent Mac.

Originally Posted by sek929

Fallout has always been a deeply lonely experience wandering the wastes with, at most, a companion or two. The idea of a cooperative PVP-ish Fallout just...doesn't really seem doable.

At first glance I agree, but I’m will to keep an open mind because it is a prequel. It stands to reason that the wasteland maybe wasn’t quite so depopulated back then.

Edit: Also the shooting is absolute dogshit in fallout games, with no real VATS system I hope they've got a new engine for this game to run on.

It is the same engine as F4, which in turn is based on the engine for Bethesda games going back as far as Oblivion. It seems to be the last hurrah for that engine, however - Starfield appears to be running on a new engine.

The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.

As more F76 news comes out I'm becoming intrigued. Server cap seems to be 24 players, with 6 big regions ala Destiny it does appear that running into other players won't be common. The big ? for me is the gunplay. As Jawbone said Destiny might be boring but the shooting mechanics are polished to a mirror-finish. If there's no Vats the aiming / run n gun have to be greatly improved, I cannot stress this enough. F4 brought non-Vats shooting the farthest its ever been...and it still sucks.

With my penchant for online survival PVP (DayZ, Fortnite) and my love of Fallout I could see finding meat on the bone here. If anything, Dakar playing this game with me is probably enough for me to give it a whirl...after the results from the Beta come back of course.

Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?

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Jul 5, 2018, 11:22 AM

Laminar Gaming Update:
Finally finished Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, took about 56 hours to get through the main story without too much deviation on side quests. I was laid up on the couch sitting on an ice pack for a week this spring and got through the rest of it after letting it sit for quite a while.

Picked up Dirt Rally when it was cheap on Steam. It feels like quite an upgrade over Dirt 3, but I might be a little burnt out on racing games so I only have a couple of hours on it.

Played through Titanfall 2 over the past couple of weeks, I'm kind of disappointed that the campaign was only ~7 hours. A lot of really super cool mechanics, I feel like they barely got touched on before the story ended. I tried online matchmaking but after waiting through several 4-7 minute expected wait times with no luck I gave up. I have precious few minutes to game, why would I waste most of that waiting? Went back to the single player campaign at a harder difficulty.

Also finally jumped on the Rocket League bandwagon. After getting a bit tired of the Lego games (we've played through Batman 2&3, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Avengers, Star Wars Complete Saga), I was looking for something split screen and kid-friendly and this seemed to fit the bill. Kid still prefers the Lego games but he's getting the hang of it and it's a fun change of pace.

Picked up Dirt Rally when it was cheap on Steam. It feels like quite an upgrade over Dirt 3, but I might be a little burnt out on racing games so I only have a couple of hours on it.

Have you messed with Project Cars 1 or 2?

Also finally jumped on the Rocket League bandwagon. After getting a bit tired of the Lego games (we've played through Batman 2&3, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Avengers, Star Wars Complete Saga), I was looking for something split screen and kid-friendly and this seemed to fit the bill. Kid still prefers the Lego games but he's getting the hang of it and it's a fun change of pace.

Rocket League has been a brilliantly-executed concept. I've put 250+ hours into it so far. I thought my progression had stalled, but my rank keeps going up at a paraplegic snail's pace. I started having a lot more fun once I switched to 2v2.

For anyone who loves JRPGs (if any exist out of the remaining 5-6 members still posting here, I've played the 3-hour demo of Octopath Traveler, and it's absolutely fantastic.

A YouTuber described the art style as, "Like you played Final Fantasy VI 20 years ago, then games disappeared from the earth until now. Octopath Traveler looks like what FFVI felt like, and the way you think you remember it." The art direction is phenomenal, but it really takes seeing the game in motion to understand why the visual design works:

The gameplay is a mix between traditional Final Fantasy combat and Persona's weakness-based tactics. I'm pumped up.

Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?

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Jul 9, 2018, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Have you messed with Project Cars 1 or 2?

I haven't. Every time I think about sitting down to play a car game, I'm reminded of the real life car game in my garage that needs fixing and I end up doing that instead. One of these days that thing will work.

Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?

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Jul 9, 2018, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Rocket League has been a brilliantly-executed concept. I've put 250+ hours into it so far. I thought my progression had stalled, but my rank keeps going up at a paraplegic snail's pace. I started having a lot more fun once I switched to 2v2.

How does the online party creating work via skill equalization? I'm playing casual - does it pair up groups of a similar skill? Or is it a free for all and the good guys will be playing ranked? I feel like I'll come in for the first game and kick ass and then the next five or six games just get demolished. I didn't know if they adjust teams or games to put similarly skilled players together.